How to create affirmations to help animals

Do you use affirmations in your life? I didn’t used to, but I swear by them now. In my life, I have seen that affirmations really open doors. When I am stuck in a place, I just start with affirmations, and it may take some time, but I always see that as soon as I begin to work with the affirmations, I start to visualize and see what the affirmations are saying, and as soon as I can visualize and see a potential for something, then I can start to feel it emotionally. Then it becomes easier for it to actually manifest on a physical plane.

Animals are sensitive to our energies, so that’s another reason to practice daily affirmations. When we are in a bad place, they naturally want to come to us and offer comfort. But if they are the ones sick or hurt, they need us to be the strong support they deserve. But that’s not so easy when negative emotions often get in the way. Here are four steps to making affirmations work for you and your animals. Keep in mind, these steps work for shelter situations or even the family dog or cat:

Step 1: Be present and mindful.

Any time you are working with or spending time with an animal, remember to be present in the moment and mindful of your thoughts. If your thoughts are negative, how can you possibly create a positive space for the animals?

The answer is: You can’t. Animals are sensitive to our thoughts, feelings and energy—whether positive or negative. That’s why it’s so important to think positive when working with animals. If you’re actively doing affirmations, you’re going to see a shift in the animals that come to you. More animals will come. More animals will be drawn.

Step 2: Take notice whenever negative thoughts pop up.

When sitting and meditating with an animal, whether your own cat or dog or at a shelter, watch out for unhelpful thoughts that focus solely on the bad side, such as the animal’s situation in a shelter or his appearance. For instance:

Situation: A sick-looking dog is dying.

Negative thought: “I hate this. What a poor dog. Life is so unfair.”

Emotions: Stress, sadness, despair

Result: Our negative thinking has gotten in the way of helping the animal. We were so focused on what they looked like, or our take on the direness of a situation, that we neglected to truly be there in the moment for the animal, offering a peaceful space. Instead, the time shared between you and the animal has been tarnished by negativity.

Step 3: Retrain your mind to think positive.

This goes back to mindfulness in Step 1. When you feel a negative thought emerging, look deeper to the heart of things—this will help you find a positive focus. For example:

Situation: A sick-looking dog is dying.

Positive thought: “What a beautiful soul he is: perfect and bright in this moment. I can imagine exactly what this dog was like as a puppy, running around happy and doing silly things. Just think of how much joy he has brought to so many people in his lifetime! I feel so blessed to be here in this moment, supporting him.”

Emotions: Compassion, love, joy

Result: The animal is not stressed out by our negative energy, but rather drawn to our open heart and mind. A positive space has been created.

Step 4: Practice, practice, practice.

Emotions are tricky things, and they often have minds of their own, refusing to listen to us. So be easy on yourself if this is all new to you. Learning to think in affirmations requires time, patience, practice and self-compassion. If sad or negative thoughts feel standard and familiar to you, it’s going to take extra effort to retrain your mind to think positively. But it can be done, even if it feels a little weird at first, or like you’re making it up. But keep trying—eventually the energy within you will shift, and that’s when you’ll know your hard work has paid off. You’ll feel less stress and anxiety within your heart, and the animals around you will feel that, too.

Kathleen Prasad is an entrepreneur, author, educator, spiritual seeker and animal advocate living in beautiful Marin County, California, with her husband, daughter, dog and two horses. She loves being with animals, listening to hip-hop, eating out at vegan restaurants, riding dressage, hiking in the redwoods and traveling the world to meet animal people.You can learn more about Kathleen here.

Comments (7)

Linda Miller

This is great – very practical way to incorporate affirmations/mindfulness for our time with animals! My favorite affirmations with both animals and people: All is Well I will step back and let the Divine Lead the way Flow Reiki Flow!

rACHEL hASSEL

Sharon L Burton

Next week will be two years since I adopted Marcus who I consider my first Reiki teacher. I would sit with him for about an hour at a time just being with him. I would imagine his true nature instead of being emotionally shut down trying to hide in his liter box. For the first few visits he wouldn’t even move. I would listen for thoughts on how to connect with him. How to get him to relax in his own skin. That was before I even heard about Reiki. It was about a year and a half later. I had a pretty good system down on connecting to the scared cats at the shelter but it was the aggressive (scared) cats that I was trying to figure out a way to connect with. I started doing some online searching and came across SARA. Thank God and Thank you. At the being of this year I started my journey with Reiki.

This was a great article! I need to work on affirmations with my dog who is afraid of thunderstorms. I ordered her some flower essences but in the mean time I need an affirmation for myself so I don’t stress over her distress. What a great reminder you have given me. Thank you!

About Our Blog

It’s a Heartful Life aims to be an antidote to the message, “It’s a hard knock life.” We want to inspire readers with positivity and feature individuals, organizations and businesses in the areas of food, style, design, animals and travel who are doing great and positive things in this world.

IAHL is a lifestyle blog (with a special interest in animal Reiki) that's dedicated to healthy, heartful living–something that’s even more important to Kathleen now since becoming a two-time cancer survivor. When we remember to live life from the heart, we bring happiness, goodness and healing to our world. Thanks for stopping by!

It’s a Heartful Life is curated and managed by sisters Kathleen Prasad and Charlotte Jensen.

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